Family Archives | Page 3 of 10 | Midwestern At Heart

The Story Part 6

**Part 1**
**Part 2**
**Part 3**
**Part 4**
**Part 5**

I knew that the nurse came in to take my vitals but hubby and I were so exhausted that we wound up going right back to sleep. I remember passing my arm across the bed at the nurse but I’m fairly certain she took my blood pressure while I was asleep.

When I woke up closer to 7:30 that Saturday morning hubby and I discussed breakfast and he called our order down to the cafeteria and then we got baby girl up to hold her. After we ate hubby started packing our things up because we were told we’d be able to go home that day. My doctor came in and released me, we were just waiting for baby girl’s doctor’s nurse practitioner to come in and check her/release her to go home.

Nurse Shanie who gave us a tour of the delivery area a few months prior was our nurse that morning. She and the Nurse Practitioner came in and checked baby girl over, answered a few questions that hubby and I had and said that she was released. So hubby continued to pack up our things so we could leave as soon as we were discharged.

My mom called and asked if we needed some help. I told her if nothing else, please come to our house and watch baby girl so at least hubby and I could shower and take a nap. The night before was a bit rough. She said she’d just head into the hospital and help us finish loading up and then she’d be more than happy to watch baby girl for us.

Around 11:30, I was still in the hospital gown but otherwise everything was packed up and had been moved to the car, except for what I needed to change. We were just sitting in the room waiting for the nurse to come release us. Finally hubby asked me if they forgot about me and told me to come up with something I could ask them.

As you may or may not know, they have you wear those mesh underwear things in the hospital so I finally thought I’d go ask if I could wear my actual underwear home. I know, it was a stupid question but I needed to do something to get the nurses attention. They told me of course I could and asked if I was ready to go home or if we were eating lunch there. I said, I’d prefer to just go home, I really don’t have any reason to stick around here unless I need to. They told me to go get dressed and when I was, come let them know and we’d go through discharge papers.

I walked back in the room and asked hubby to come into the bathroom and help me dress and then we’d be ready to go. I was kind of excited. 2 days in the hospital was long enough for me. The only other time I’ve been in the hospital like that was when I was born and I obviously don’t remember that.

Once I was dressed and got everything packed up that was still waiting I went out and told the nurse sitting at the desk. She said Shanie would be right in as soon as she was finished doing what she was doing.

My mom helped dress baby girl in her going home outfit, we snapped a few photos and then we were out the door running.

Okay I wasn’t running and neither was anyone else. Shanie wheeled me out of the building (protocol), hubby carried baby girl in her carseat (also protocol, babies have to be strapped into carseats before they are allowed to leave the room), and my mom, FIL and hubby grabbed what ever was remaining in our room to go home and then we finally got to head home.

We put our stuff in the car, my mom took my prescription to go get from the pharmacy and we headed out of the hospital parking lot. It was a crazy feeling, even though we’d only been in there for 2 days to leave there. The driving home part was sooooo surreal. I snapped a picture of gas prices on the day baby girl got to go home.

When hubby and I were headed home we called my MIL so she and Tbug could come over. We got to the house and unloaded baby girl. My mom got there with my prescription just after we got home. She decided to run to the Amish store up the road to get us lunch. Then since my MIL was there, my mom said she had things to do at home so she went ahead and headed home. My MIL and Tbug watched baby girl while hubby and I took a shower and then went and took a nap. While we were napping, Earl and the kids came by to see Peanut for a few minutes and then she went home to make dinner (for us too).

Later that night Earl, Pokey and the kids came back with Lasagna for us. While they were here they watched Peanut while Tbug, Memaw, hubby and I ate. We all sat here and watched a movie. About halfway through the movie Earl and I went and put Peanut in jammies that Pokey picked out especially for her.

Then we settled back in to watch the movie. Peanut made some of the cutest faces while we sat here and watched the movie. In fact, I have no idea what movie we watched because I watched Peanut more.

Then about the time that Earl, Pokey and the kids went to leave, Moo and Tbug gave peanut a kiss. And then we were on our first night home as a new family.

The Story Part 5

**Part 1**
**Part 2**
**Part 3**
**Part 4**

Since the nurse came in and said that we needed to get breakfast ordered by a certain time I woke hubby up and asked him to call in our order. We both looked at the menu. I ordered Biscuits and Gravy with a side of bacon and peaches with orange juice to drink, he ordered a ham omlet with bacon with orange juice to drink. Our hospital is awesome because they make it so the father’s (and kids) can order off the same menu and it’s one flat price.

Once they brought breakfast and hubby and I ate, the nurse came in to check on baby girl and me and to bring me pain meds and a prenatal vitamin. After that they let us be. Hubby and I started watching Friends and I had baby girl in the bed with me. After my nap with her, hubby took her so I could get up and go to the bathroom and they took a nap together.

At one point that morning a social worker came in to visit with us. Apparently that’s the new common standard, everyone has to talk to a social worker, that’s what she told us anyway. It seems strange to me because none of my friends have experienced this. Anyway she asked us questions and I upset her… note to self, never tell a social worker the carseat is in the trunk. I must clarify that we packed everything for the hospital 2 weeks prior to needing it, just in case so I put it there so I had use of my back seat. She asked if we had a carseat for baby and I said, yes it’s in the trunk. She got on to me for that. I clarified for her that the carseat base was in the back seat, but I carried the carseat in the trunk until it was needed. She yelled at me prior to my clarification and told me Babies NEVER ride in the trunk and I should never tell a social worker that.

Between naps we had visitors come to see us. We had the preacher, Deb, Michelle & Shaye (they brought cupcakes!!),

my mom and Tbug, my MIL, my FIL and so many more I kind of lost track. It was fun because they came between naps so we got to nap on Friday. Around 4pm just before Doug and Rachele got there to see her the nurse came to take her away and do some testing as well as the hospital photos of her.

We had exceptional nurses our whole stay at the hospital. The last night there though (Friday night) we had nurse Nazi as we affectionately referred to her. There was a standing rule that we were only allowed 5 people in the room, including hubby (guests, not Peanut or me in that 5). All during our stay there were a few times we had a few more but people came and left so it wasn’t like I was over the limit long. That night though Earl and her mom walked in on 5 people already in the room and nurse Nazi kicked them out. Told them they were not allowed in until 2 people left.

Okay that was the rules but dang, the director of obstetrics never got on to us about that… but okay. Then that night she yelled at hubby for dozing off with baby girl in his arms. If he was going to sleep, she had to be in the bassinet. Again, we’d taken naps with her all day but okay. I was in the shower when that happened. Then later in the night hubby was asking the nurse about feedings and it took forever to get an answer out of her. Oy! Luckily that was the only night we had to deal with nurse Nazi.

So there is no nursery. The babies stay in the room with the parents at all times unless the nurses take the baby out to the nurses station. They offered that night to take her but I figured she’d be okay with us. Then around 2am when she wouldn’t quit crying and hubby and I were exhausted, we asked the nurses if they’d be able to watch her for a couple hours so we could get some sleep. They came in and took her so they could give her a bath and kept her until around 5am when they brought her back in the room. They took my vitals and we all went back to sleep.

The Story Part 4

**Part 1**
**Part 2**
**Part 3**

After they had her all cleaned up and gave her to hubby and me, they asked if we planned on bottle feeding or breast feeding. Said that if we planned on breast feeding we needed to try within 1 hour after birth. Finally once the nurse had all of her information/procedure done including removing the IV’s and the catheter from my epidural, she said we were allowed to have 5 (including hubby) visitors in the room. I honestly can’t tell you the order anyone came in. And I was having a hay day because I still couldn’t feel my legs.

They told us that they had a bet going on in the waiting room on how much she would weigh. Tbug came in with the most accurate at 7lb 9oz. Then Memaw, Grandma J and Earl guessed 8lb 2oz. Mom guessed 8lb 1oz, my FIL guessed 8lb 6oz and my dad guessed 11lb 2oz so that when she came out at 6lb 9oz we could laugh.

Earlier that morning I woke up sooooo thirsty but watching all the tv shows where people have babies, you’re not supposed to drink anything so when this was all said and done the first thing I requested was water. Yup, water. I could have had anything I wanted to drink (obviously within reason… lol), the nurse offered and all I wanted was water. Then we also ordered suckers that said It’s a Girl for everyone since it’s no longer cool to give out cigars… lol :).

We chose to use the pediatrician that Earl uses for her kids which just so happens to be one of the two who comes into the hospital and also happened to be the on call pediatrician this week. She came in to check on Peanut and said all looked well. Yey :).

We had lots of visitors. In fact later on the next couple of days I started listing the visitors and can’t remember them all I’m afraid. I have a huge list though!

Then our nurse came back in to give Peanut her bath. She wasn’t so crazy about the sponge bath.

Finally they released me to eat. Thank goodness! I was hungry. I ordered a cheeseburger and fries. YUM! I woofed my food down. Mom and dad went home to do chores and eat dinner and then came back to pick up Tbug since she wanted to eat dinner with us.

The nurse got tickled at me because as my legs were waking up I kept commenting on how they felt. For the most part my right leg was completely back awake other than a few spots here and there still felt asleep but my left leg… that was another story. I could feel from my knee down but from my knee to my hip still was out of it come around 7-8pm. I had asked at 4 how long it would take to come back and they said about an hour. By the 7-8 time I really needed to go to the bathroom. The nurse was afraid to let me walk to the bathroom though because she figured since my leg was still like it was I would wind up on the floor.

She wound up changing the bedding so she agreed to let me move from the bed to a chair she sat next to the bed. Since I did so well moving there she grabbed my left side and made hubby grab my right side and they walked me to the bathroom in case my leg gave out. I had no problems though :).

Earl had gone home earlier that evening but somehow (whether she offered or hubby asked) she went to our house to pick up some things we left earlier that morning. One of the things hubby had her pick up for us were seasons of Friends since that’s what we normally go to sleep watching anyway. We were trying to create a sense of normalcy in all this chaoticness.

Everyone left us around 11pm that night. Hubby and I were exhausted.

The nurses came in around 2am (Friday morning) or so and took the Peanut off for a bath and to run the hearing test on her which she passed with flying colors. Then when they brought her back, they took my vitals and asked when the last time she had been fed was. The funny thing about these nurses were they were the same ones that checked me in at 2am (Thursday morning). I told them we’d tried feeding her but I was afraid that she wasn’t getting anything so we decided to give her a bottle to make sure she was at least getting something in her tummy. So we had our first of many of 3am feedings.

Then we went back to sleep. Hubby kept the bassinet next to him since he was able to get up easier than I was. She would make noises in her sleep so I’d wake him up, he’d check on her and we’d go back to sleep. Around 7am Becca came in to check on us and take my vitals. She asked how I was feeling and I replied, Exhausted. She said, okay well I’ll come back later to do more. Just to let you know it’s almost 7 and if you want breakfast you need to order it by 8am or so to get it down here.

Baby Reveal Party

Because hubby and I had that specialist appointment on Wednesday last week, we asked the ultra sound tech that if she were to find out the sex of the baby, we’d like to know. She said she’d see what she could do, especially because baby wasn’t cooperating at all at the beginning of the ultrasound.

My parents went up with us to the appointment but sat in the waiting room so they weren’t privy to the information. When we left we kinda bragged that we knew what the sex of the baby was but we weren’t going to reveal until Saturday when we had our reveal party.

My mom did everything she could to get me to tell her but I withstood. In fact so did everyone else. I think that helped me not slip up :).

So we invited my parents, hubby’s parents, Tbug (of course), My SIL, my grandma and hubby’s grandma over to our house on Saturday for lunch. We decided to have everyone wear the color shirt that they thought the baby could be. After the matter that we found out we thought we should have had the lady seal the information in an envelope and taken it to a bakery and let us all be surprised together… but since we didn’t, I made the cake.

I made a Strawberry Velvet Cake and used my decorating icing recipe for the icing. I should have gone cream cheese icing, knowledge for later! I woke up Saturday morning needing to decorate the cake. Hubby planned on running to town so I sent Tbug with him so she wouldn’t know the answer either and I decorated while they were gone.

Because hubby and I knew what the baby was we tried to decide what to do to throw everyone off. I decided that we’d just wear different color shirts so hubby went pink and I went blue, especially since that’s kind of what we each thought until we found out for sure. Tbug went blue but cheated with pink on her blue shirt… lol.

Once they got back from town we went to work on the food. We decided to keep it simple so we did burgers, baked potatoes and green beans. Tbug and hubby seasoned the baked potatoes and stuck them in the oven and let the oven do all the work.

Then hubby mixed up the ingredients for the burgers and Tbug had her hands all in that… literally :).

My FIL and Grandmother in law showed up so my FIL and Tbug made the burger patties and then he taught Tbug how to cook the hamburgers on the inside grill since it was cold outside.

Everyone wanted to eat cake first but I was like, NOPE! :). 30 more minutes won’t hurt you to wait… lol. We got everyone something to drink, took tabs on what everyone thought baby was and ate lunch.

Finally we cleared off the table and brought out the cake. We thought it would be fun for Tbug to cut the cake since she was the youngest at the party.

And let it be known, the baby is a…..

And there you have it boys and girls. We’re having a girl. Although my biggest fear is we told everyone that and then another ultra sound will reveal a boy. ha!

Let's Talk Socks

Seriously, who doesn’t LOVE brand new socks? They just have that warm, cozy feeling. That brand new, out of the package feel. It’s hard to describe, but it’s there, trust me, if you don’t see it that is.

So here a while back hubby, Tbug and I were walking through Walmart and we found cute socks. Now if there is anything to know about us…

I love new socks
The cuter the socks, the better
Tall socks are great for boots
Tbug never has socks, even when we buy her socks
So she wears mine.

Most of the time it’s just easier to tell her to wear my socks anyway. All socks we buy her I swear disappear. Maybe she eats them, or the cat plays with them? Either way, she wears my socks most of the time. And when she can’t find matching socks, she wears mis-matched socks… but that is the cool thing to do so whatever.

But I must complain… Do you see a problem with this sock? (look at where the arrow is pointing!)

How on EARTH does she make the socks dirty? Those socks were worn 1 time. That’s it… they were brand spankin new socks and she makes them dirty. She does that with every pair of socks I have whether they are brand new or old.

You see these socks? I’ve worn them 3 times and they’re still clean.

Can someone PLEASE explain this to me………..?

Awkward Moments

{Typed up on September 23, 2013)
You know those awkward moments in life. Come on, I know you do, we all have them at some point or another.

So a priceless moment is hubby going to buy a pregnancy test.

I hadn’t been feeling well and not to say we were trying, but at the same time, we weren’t preventing anything either so hubby wanted me to take a pregnancy test when I started not feeling well. So after he couldn’t convince me to go buy one, he went to the drug store on his way home from work one evening and tried to quickly grab one and get out.

You know how that story goes, especially when you’re in a small town drug store. A guy walked up and said, “Can I help you?” He was like {thinking crap}, “I’m trying to find a pregnancy test.” The guy told him they were to his right. The two gals behind the counter said, “Do you see them?” He looked over and saw all kinds of other random stuff but no tests so he was like, “No.” So one gal came over to help him.

He said it was quite embarrassing because they brought out the Gangnam style dancing at the chance to help him find a pregnancy test.

He went through all of that for nothing because I wound up not needing to take the test anyway.

***********************************

{Typed up on October 14, 2013}
The next month…

For about a week I felt nauseous. I kind of thought it was due to eating dinner late, especially after bouncing around on a tractor in the hayfield of an evening. Finally hubby suggested I go ahead and make use of that test. He was like it was cheap so why not. Well, leave it to me. I screwed it up the first go-round, as in I didn’t pee on it. Yup, I’m cool like that. So we waited the time it said and notta. It didn’t even register. We looked at each other dumbfounded and he asked me if I read the directions. Of course, I didn’t because I felt dumb doing that in the first place. (more…)

Blogtember: Where I came from

Describe where or what you come from. The people, the places, and/or the factors that make up who you are.

Hehe when I first read that, I had to do a double take. I thought it meant like a rock or something which there have been times I’ve sworn I just might have because I don’t really look like either of my parents, but as the years go by, I’m starting to more and more. Whew!

I came from a family who believed in hard work, dedication and education. My dad worked 40-hours per week while farming 250 acres of land and going to school full time. My parents met on a blind date and it grew from there. My mom was in college at the time as well and dad wouldn’t marry her until she graduated from college. My mom learned how to drive a tractor so she could at least spend time with my dad. Tell me that isn’t dedication and hard work right there!

Throughout the years of being my parents daughter they’ve created a wonderful life not only for themselves but for me too. There are more times than not, I’d love to give my kid someday the life and experiences that my parents afforded me. There are days I almost break down and cry because I feel like I can’t live up to the excellentness (hey it’s a word today) of what my life was.

Both my parents have been a GREAT example for me as their parents were to them. I’m not going to lie, all of my grandparents have been a great influence in my life as well.

What do you miss?

Isn’t it lovely that this question is posed on Mother’s Day. I have 3 people who come to mind and those would be 3 of my 4 grandparents. Sadly I am only left with one grandparent whom I love so much. I had a very fun, unique relationship with my 4 grandparents.

My Grandma S was taken from me in 2007 due to that nasty thing called cancer. She was one of my biggest supporters and biggest fans. She wanted absolutely nothing but the best for me and always made me strive for my best. Sometimes she and I were so much a like we butted heads, but she was always there for me to help whether it was studying for a test or helping me scrub my sheep to get ready for a show. She was out there coaching me when it came to my horses or she was there telling me how important and nice it is to help clean my parents house while they were at work. It breaks my heart that she never got to meet my hubby or Tbug because I know she would have been absolutely smitten with them.

My Grandpa S followed her 9 months later on Father’s Day 2008 due to that nasty thing again called cancer. The love that I saw between my grandparents is always something to strive for. Every relationship should be like the one I witnessed between the two of them. Grandpa was right there with her every step of the way while she cheered on both her children and her grandchild (me). When I started showing sheep at 15 years old, he and my other grandpa were right there helping me build anything and everything I needed to get my sheep ready. And my grandpa’s were there helping my parents building fences to help keep our horses in. Then when my parents were in Hawaii and someone took out our mailbox, they were right there helping me put another mailbox in for my parents when I ran out of steam and daylight.

My Grandpa J and I had a very unique relationship as well. When I was in the 2nd grade he had just retired and started picking me up every day after school. If I was driving to a fair that my parents couldn’t attend with me, grandpa was right there to travel with me. Anything I needed or really wanted, I truthfully never had to want for anything. He wanted absolutely nothing but the best for me. When he met my husband, my husband walked up and shook his hand, grandpa looked at me and said, that’s a good one. Keep him. You can tell a lot by the way a man shakes your hand and that’s a good one. He was there the day my daddy walked me down the aisle.

(more…)

Embarrassing moments – Pop Tab Edition

Ok so telling you about this might make you scratch your head at my sanity and that’s ok….

So back in like 2004ish we were discussing why Ronald McDonald house collected pop tabs to help with rooming fees. I don’t remember who “we” was, I sure wish I did. So whoever it was I was discussing this with (I really think my dad, but I don’t know) told me that they had more aluminum in them than a pop can.

via

So I went to dinner with my dad, uncle and grandpa and we all had pop cans so I started swipping pop tabs off the cans and my uncle asked me why. I told him I was collecting them for the Ronald McDonald house. He asked me why they collected them so I told them it was because they had more aluminum in them than the pop can. I thought my uncle was going to fall off the bench we were sitting on laughing his butt off at me.

Sad thing is, that was close to 10 years ago and I still haven’t lived that comment down… anytime I’m around a pop can someone gives me fits about the pop tabs.

Here's to the Future

Like many of us, I am a creature of habit. It is comfortable when things go the same way, day in and day out. Get up, go to work, come home, do my workout, play with the pooches, eat dinner, spend time with hubby, throw in some horse back riding and time with the {step}daughter, and then get up and do it again the very next day. It makes life feel easy. Yes, we have our obstacles thrown in there on a daily or weekly or monthly basis, but at the same time, those are fairly regular as well.

Lately though, a storm has been brewing in these parts, waiting to unleash its fury on the people who are near. I don’t really want to talk much about it just yet, and don’t worry, my marriage is still very strong, so no worries there, but at the same time, a whole new chapter in my life is about to unfold.

It’s very edgy, very scary, and truthfully I have no idea which way it will lead me. Possibly any person in their right mind would want to jump ship, but that’s not an option. I can reassure you though, that I have the absolute best husband, {step}daughter, parents, family and friends that a girl could possibly ever need or want. They all stand behind me 100% and back my every whim.

Although to say I’m scared sh*tless would be quite the understatement. I am nervous. I am scared. I’m not real sure what the outcome is going to be, which makes it even more nerve racking.

You may or may not have noticed that I kind of disappeared late last week, but I just didn’t know how to put words and thoughts together. I’m still not quite sure, but if nothing else, I’m sure it will be one heck of a ride.

And to that, Early and I toasted to the future.